Tip #1 – Will more memory (RAM) make my computer run faster?

By running task manager, you can determine if you have sufficient memory for the tasks you are currently running and the tasks that you have run since you last turned on your computer. Here are the detailed steps to make the determination:

Detailed Steps:

1. Start task manager one of these two ways .

Hold the CTRL and ALT keys down and hit the Delete or Del key. This should bring up a screen with six buttons on it. Click the “Task Manager” button. If you don't get the expected result, try the other method.

..or..

Click the “Start” button and select “Run…”. Type “taskmgr” into the form and click OK.

2. Click the “Performance” tab .

This shows you several performance parameters about the memory and CPU utilization of your computer.

3. Find out how much memory your computer has installed .

Look at the text at the bottom of the Task Manager – Performance screen – there are 4 sections. The memory you have in your computer is listed under the “Physical Memory (K)” section next to the word “Total”. It is listed in Kilobytes so to convert to Megabytes, drop the last three numbers.

4. Find out how much memory you are currently using.

Under the “Commit Charge (K)” section, find the “Total” and the “Peak”. The “Total” is how much you are using at this instant and the “Peak” is the maximum amount of memory you have used since you turned on the computer.

5. Making the determination

Generally, you want your “Peak” to be less or equal to the amount of memory you have installed (Physical Memory – Total). However, it is not that bad if your “Peak” is 10% or so more than your installed memory.

Why does it get slow (for the techie)?

The Windows Operating System will push “older” data and programs out of memory and manage your memory (RAM) if it needs to so that there is enough for your active programs to use.

If the difference gets to be more than 10%, then the operating system has to spend a lot of time pushing things out of memory and pulling them back in and that slows down the operation of your programs. It is pushing the “older” data and programs on to your hard drive (called paging). The access speed of your hard drive is on the order of 1000 times slower than memory (RAM). Obviously, this will cause the system to get very slow if it has to do this even occasionally. This can be a cause of the system suddenly hanging for a period of time.

Will removing programs help (for the curious)?

In general, no because programs are installed onto the hard drive...but…

Programs are installed onto your hard drive and they are only loaded into memory (RAM) when you run them. However, it seems that most programs these days have an automatic downloader, updater and/or quick launcher. That means that when you install these programs, they automatically start at least a portion of the program every time the system starts or you log into the computer. Un-installing these types of programs or disabling the auto-download, quick launcher, etc will reduce the memory consumption. For instance, if you don't watch videos on your computer every day, you don't need to have Real Player running. The programs with these features will typically put an icon in your task bar (bottom right corner of your screen by the time).

What is RAM and how does it differ from a hard drive (for geeks only)?

RAM stands for Random Access Memory which means that the CPU (central processing unit) can address any memory location at any time (random access) with the same response time. RAM is solid state (electronic) memory. Your hard drive has magnetic memory on a platter (or multiple platters) with a motor to spin the media around and a magneto-head that can read it (similar to a CD). To read memory locations, the head has to first move to the proper track, then wait for the first memory location to come to it. It works best when all the data is in a row (like a movie on a CD). This happens when your hard drive is not fragmented and why you need to run "defrag" once a month or so.

That's your Tech Tip; we hope you find this useful.

Computer Purchases

Just Biz Technology Services is a volume reseller for Dell computers and because of this volume, we can usually get a better price than what you will find posted on the Dell website.

Please do not purchase a computer without asking for our free recommendation. We often see businesses "get a great deal" on a computer from a local retail outlet but they may not order the proper hardware or software configuration for their needs. They end up spending more money on the software than if they purchased the OEM software (which is generally priced significantly less than retail) with the system purchase and have to pay more money to have us upgrade the system.

Similarly, buying a computer with too little memory can be costly as well. If you get a computer with 256MB of RAM and you realize you need to upgrade to 512MB, if you have two 128MB sticks and only two slots for the sticks, then you have to throw away the existing memory and buy two 256MB memory sticks.

Today's memory (both DDR and DDR2) works best in matched pairs. “Matched” means that they have the same speed and size.

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